Local News

County road chip sealing proceeding on schedule, budget

40.35 miles of county's roads to receive preservative seal

The county's road department is on track to finish applying chip seal treatment to 40.35 miles of county roads by August 4. (File photo)

The county's yearly road chip sealing campaign got underway on July 10 and Public Works Director Bruce Bass said the department is on track to finish applying chip seal treatment to 40.35 miles of county roadway by August 4. Chip seal is a protective wearing surface applied to existing pavement that consists of a thin film of heated asphalt and small gravel or rock "chips" that are spread into that new asphalt layer. It is commonly applied to rural roadways in order to extend the life of the pavement.

"It gives us an extra layer of total pavement cap all the way across the roadway to keep the moisture and stuff from getting through the cracks and whatnot into the subsurfaces," Bass said of chip sealing.

Chip seal is typically applied to pavement 2 to 3 years after it is initially installed. It can extend the life of the asphalt by 5 to 7 years.

"We are trying to extend these roads useful life before we have to do those high dollar overlays," he said. "We put the chip seal down and we get another five years out of that asphalt and it helps preserve that oil inside the asphalt and seals the top up and gives us a new wear surface to work on."

This year's chip sealing campaign began on MCR 33 on the far eastern edge of the county and is moving westward across it. Sections of 22 roads are scheduled to receive chip seal treatment.

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Because chip seal is meant to preserve and maintain roadways rather than repair them, Bass said chip sealing is typically not done on roads that are "in too bad of shape." He said those roads should instead receive an overlay or, in some cases, be reconstructed.

However, Bass his department did increase the "shot rate" or amount of oil being used per square foot of road for some road sections that were in worse shape from 0.47 gallons to 0.5 gallons so that the chips would adhere better. Increasing the shot rate increases the expense of the chip seal because more oil is used. However, Bass said the county had accounted for such increases in its budget and the whole campaign is "right on budget."

The county has been behind on road maintenance, including chip sealing, as a result of the 2013 and 2015 floods, which forced the public works department to focus its resources on aiding in the flood recoveries. He said a lack of available funds during the national economic downturn also contributed to the county falling behind, though he said the floods were the primary factor.

"Funds are important," he said. "When you don't have the budget dollars to work with you do what you can with what you've got."

However, he said his department has made significant progress toward getting caught up in the past year.

"I think we've made good strides all the way around," he said. "We spent a lot of our resources doing those recoveries and unfortunately that took away from other things we should've been doing but we are working our way back toward the top and I think we've come a long way in the last year considering there's only so many hours in a day and we only have so many people. And we are going to knock on wood that there are no more floods for awhile."

Bass said the county is also catching up on its road graveling operations and its efforts to patch pot holes. Most of the roads receiving the chip seal treatment this year received overlays 2 or 3 years ago which means the county is applying chip seal on schedule to those roads. 35 miles of roadway were also chip sealed last year and Bass said that the county has budgeted to chip seal an average of 40 miles of roadway over the next few years. Morgan County contains 230 total miles of paved roadway.

The county is also in the process of evaluating whether an extra diluted oil layer called a fog seal that can be applied over chip seal is effective in preserving that chip seal and thus the overall roadway and worth the fog seal's extra added cost. Last year, the county decided to test the effectiveness of fog seal by applying it to one mile sections of MCR R, MCR 24 and MCR T.5. Adjacent sections of those roadways were also chip sealed but not fog sealed in order for the county to compare levels of deterioration over the next few years.

Fog seal also makes the surface of the roadway black which melts snow at a faster rate. However, Bass said the fog seal will only be worthwhile if the county determines that it also extends the life of the roadway. Last year's fog sealing cost the county $3,000 per mile last year. Bass said the county will not apply fog seal to any more roads until it determines if it is effective.

Road Construction Manager John Goodman told the county commissioners at their July 12 meeting that while the jury is ultimately still out on the fog seal he has not been impressed with it so far.

"It doesn't seem like [the chips] are really adhering that much better [with the fog seal]," Goodman said of the chip seal. "Years down the road I guess we'll go and see if the rock stays a little better but $3,000 per mile is a pretty high cost."

Bass said that it is complicated to give an accounting of the overall state of the county's roads. Still, he said he believes the roads are in good shape despite the county being behind on their maintenance

"From our department's standpoint we believe that, in comparison to counties around us, we do a good job of keeping the roads in the best shape we can at all times," he said. "We are working extremely hard to improve the road conditions all over the county every day."

Last week, a Logan County resident threatened to initiate a recall of the Logan County Commissioners in response to the poor condition of several roads in the county and his perception that they have not done enough to address them. Bass said he does not feel that Morgan County is in a similar position.

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